Ethics still reviewing Rep. Berkley

The House Ethics Committee announced Friday it was still looking into whether to open a full investigation into Rep. Shelley Berkley, the first official notification that the Nevada Democrat is under scrutiny over allegations that she used her official position to aid her husband’s business.

In a statement issued by the House Ethics Committee, the secretive panel said it was extending the review period on the Berkley case until July 9. This comes after a recommendation from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) calling for a full investigation into Berkley.

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OCE’s recommendation for a full probe of Berkley has not been previously disclosed, and is sure to become a major political issue in her Senate race against GOP Sen. Dean Heller.

The Ethics Committee is required under House rules to make a public statement announcing it will take more than original 45 days allotted to it to review an OCE recommendation. If Ethics turns down an OCE recommendation, than the report detailing OCE’s become public. If it approves the OCE request, then Ethics creates a special subcommittee with subpoena power to conduct an investigation.

The Ethics Committee adopted the July 9 deadline for determining whether to conduct a Berlkey probe because the Nevada Democrat faces a June 12 primary for the right to take on Heller. The Ethics panel cannot act on an OCE recommendation within a two-month window leading up to any election, including primaries. Once that primary has finished, the Ethics Committee’s clock on Berkley starts again.

The Nevada Republican Party filed a complaint against Berkley last September with OCE following a New York Times report detailing how the lawmaker lobbied against the closing of a kidney transplant program at a Las Vegas hospital.

Berkley’s efforts led to the program staying open. Her husband’s company - Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada (KSSN) - later won a $738,000 per year contract from the University Medical Center. Dr. Larry Lehrner, Berkley’s husband, owns nine percent of the KSSN, according to Berkley’s aides.

Berkley has denied any conflict of interest through her intervention on behalf of the kidney program, but she later admitted to the Las Vegas Review Journal that she should have been more careful in her actions.

“This was a tough decision for me, whether or not I would weigh in,” Berkley told the Review-Journal. “I recognized that it may not look great, but I would not have been able to live with myself” by not interceding on behalf of the kidney program.

In a statement issued by campaign manager Jessica Mackley, Berkley aides noted that both Heller and former Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) joined her in pressing to save the UMC kidney transplant program in early 2008.

“The Nevada Republican Party filed a complaint against Congresswoman Berkley,” Mackler said in a statement. “As the [Ethics C]ommittee reviews this complaint, they will determine that Congresswoman Shelley Berkley’s only concern is for the well being of Nevada’s patients. That’s why she fought against out-of-state Washington bureaucrats from restricting patients’ access to care and why she joined fellow Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller to stop Nevada’s only kidney transplant program from being shut down, which would have denied life saving treatment to hundreds of Nevadans.”